Is there anything bad about Z3's?
 

The prices are pretty good around here for a nice, 98 or so BMW Z3. Is there something particularly bad about those that no one's told me about?

they are ugly

Elf Slipper!!!


:chuckles:

cac muncher :dunno:?

:oh: matter of opinion.

Anything really wrong?

They have a plastic rear window.

The trunk is tiny.

The rear suspension dates back to the E30 3-series which was sold from 1986 to 1991.

The chassis isn't that stiff.

What motor is the one you're looking at? In '98 there was a 1.9-liter 138 hp inline-4 and 2.8-liter 189 hp inline-6.

Drive a Z3 over real roads, with potholes and ish... Then go drive a 2nd Gen Miata over the same roads.... you'll discover all that is wrong with the Z3.

From my experience in comparing the two behind the wheel. Even given the additional displacement & cylinders, the difference in chassis refinement is night and day, in favor of the Mazda and the initial power deficit in the Miata is a moot point, owing to the confidence factor when driving both vehicles really hard.

Taking each car for a blast on Skyline Blvd, the BMW wanted to over-rotate in corners and under braking, would tramline like a bitch on anything other than glass smooth pavement.

The Miata, by comparison, rode far better and was much more easily controlled in terms of both initiating and recovering from oversteer.

In terms of power, yes the BMW 6 cyls sound nice, but add in the readily available smog-legal turbo kits for the Miata. and the Z3's price premium seemed even more rediculous...to me anyway. :D

Hope this helps. Do yourself a favor, and at least try the Miata....

and regardless of the tech biz ^ It's still a chick car/gay guy car

The plus side of buying a Z3 is that there are millions of replacement fenders where ever you go. Also 9 out of 10 of them remain unpainted. :thumbup:

the first two and the fourth one can be applied to nearly all convertibles.

the dated suspension has been brought up many times but for 95% of the population it's perfectly fine. a simple rear shock upgrade works wonders.

to stiffen up the chassis a front strut bar and rear butt strut bar will make a huge difference. in addition you can also get the X-brace that the M roadster and M coupe comes with standard.

http://home1.gte.net/azz3man/

The above link is for the strong strut bars.